xmaspp

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xmaspp

by dw817

Cart #xmaspp-3 | 2022-12-09 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA

8

• 12-08-22 Thanks to @kimiyoribaka for "quick new game" suggestion. In the system menu.
• 12-08-22 Thanks to @extar for finding a bug in the name entry. Corrected.
• 12-08-22 Show high-scores after entering your name. Game continues from there.

@ScrubSandwich: Greeting humanoids, this is the first game release from the group of SORCERY. We hope that you enjoy our humble release filled with Christmas cheer and winter shenanigans.

12-07-22: Hello ! I thought I would update this joint project Sorcery and myself worked on years ago with new Pico-8 v0.2.5c abilities.

For "Quick new game" press "P" anywhere, select it, and go straight to a new game.

Additionally after this you can select "P" then Reset Normal to reset the game to normal boot operation.

You can find the original post HERE:

https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=36318

Instructions are as follows:

Shoot the presents with Santa's teleporter Candy Cane gun to beam them directly to Santa's Sleigh.

Use LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys to position Santa's cane gun.
Press 🅾️ to shoot with auto-fire.
Press ❎ for a single well-placed shot.

You get a bonus man if you can hit all presents without missing a hit on a level. Use the ❎ key for this for accurate shooting so you don't accidentally shoot again and miss for a close target.

Press DOWN for force-field for Santa's cane gun. Only good for the first few levels. If you lose a cane though on any level, you automatically get the force-field back though it vanishes again once you shoot.

It is possible to hit a single present and complete that whole level. I'll let you figure out how that is done. :)

If you can reach "Ceiling Zero" then the game is won, the wonky robot is destroyed, and you get the big gala ending story with a special note from Santa just for you. And yes, this game is a tribute to an old Apple ][ game called Ceiling Zero with mods to make it Christmas themed.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS !

And please let us know if you found this game to be of fun !

Thank you !

the way the text moves and the beginning title screen are awesome… i was a little let down when the game appeared to be a simple shooter.. might just be me though.. can tell you worked hard on this and it’s awesome

I'm coming for you, Comet!

This is fun! I love the music especially well, nice sinister variation on the classic. I'm going to hook up a controller and see if that helps me move up the ranks (my arrow keys are tiny).

Hi @Tatery1 and @2bitchuck. Glad you like it. The real applause should go to @ScrubSandwich who put the whole thing together. And by that I mean the team, "Sorcery" to work on the entire project.

I was just the coder and artist. I'm not so musically inclined on the Pico-8.

This is based on an old Apple ][ game. I do get a lot of good and interesting ideas from this lovely computer console.

https://youtu.be/puGbtO8Q1_Q?t=23

While I think the original may be impossible to beat, I know for a fact THIS game can be beat as I have beaten it myself, having coded it additionally. It will take great reflexes to win the game though.

@2bitchuck, there is a secret here if you want it.

I get the desire to have attractive presentation, but please consider how long it takes to restart. You've got a game that benefits from doing good at the start, which in turn means that not doing good at the start gives the player incentive to try again from scratch. A menu option to do so immediately would be helpful.

This has that brutal old school arcade feel, your little ship, I mean candy cane is so slow and weak and can only fire one shot at a time, but it makes for good gameplay :)

I didn't find much of a use for the auto-fire, it seemed way more effective to aim and fire with X, maybe that's just my play style.

I found a crash, I entered a blank name by accident on the high score screen and when prompted if I wanted 'no-name' and went back to edit it, it crashes when you try and delete the hyphen. I'm guessing because that isn't a normal character you can otherwise use?

Anyway, fun little Christmas game!

Oh, thanks for catching the bug, @extar.

Let me see what I can do here ... Updated. You should be able to select any characters. Also if you don't want to enter in your name for High-Score. When you press 🅾️ to confirm and it asks if the name is correct, if you say NO, you have an option to skip name entry entirely.

As for the brutality. You're welcome. :) I tried to match the original Apple ][ game to the letter which requires careful shooting, not just a volley of shots. I'm pleased I was successful.

Please let me know if you find any more problems or have further suggestions !

Thanks !

Hi @kimiyoribaka.

Thanks for your interest in our cart !

Most of the good ideas in my code are from other people's helpful suggestions. I will be very happy to entertain any suggestions you would like. What would you like ?

An option in the pause menu that either causes game over immediately or starts a new game immediately would be nice. That would allow trying to get perfects in the earlier rounds go much faster.

Oh I see, @kimiyoribaka. You are going for a perfect score. Hmm ... Yep, I can do that.

Updated. Please see if this is what you want.

That works. Thanks. I'm busy now, but I'll probably play later. I've gotten as far as the first 4 without missing a shot.

That's pretty good shooting, @kimiyoribaka. Please let me know if you win the game - and it is winnable.

Beaten. I got perfect on the first 4 and technically the 5th too, but only after getting hit once. The final wave was actually a lot easier than the one before it.

Are you saying you won the entire game then, @kimiyoribaka ? There should be a bit of a story at the end. You can use [HIDDEN] with a screenshot if you like to show you made it.

Also I set it so if you do choose "quick new game" from the menu you can reset it back with "reset normal" to boot normally.

I am not going to use an argument in RUN() since it cannot be reset automatically.

After a couple years here, xmas-time is becoming my favorite part of the year on the BBS because of all the little games like these that appear. Thanks for sharing, @dw817 and co! Also, I really enjoy the ominous, minor-keyed version of Jingle Bells, lol.

Hi @ridgekuhn.

That feature goes to the very musical and talented @ScrubSandwich.

I can actually write music myself, on a piano, but not so easily in Pico-8's editor.

Perhaps @zep could add an ability inside the music editor that shows piano keys for people like me who play by ear and seeing a piano.

Also the ability to have more than one note to play at a time in a single SFX which would halve or quarter the 32-note length available in that self-single SFX.

We do appreciate your praise very much, ridgekuhn, thank you, and may we see many more years of great and thinking games for universe of Pico-8 ! :)

@dw817 I believe in you, you can do it!! I'm getting better at being able to visualize and poke out notes on the QWERTY keyboard, but before I'd gotten a decent amount of practice in, it helped a lot to pull up a piano app on my phone or power up my actual music keyboard

Thank you for your praise, @ridgekuhn. Truly ...

Now I did write a piano program some years back. Today I would rewrite the whole thing to use all the keys on the keyboard.

While it does work it's very clunky. It was written at the time where we could only read the joysticks and there was no total keyboard access.

https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?pid=55917

@dw817 that's a neat tool regardless! i know how intimidating the tracker can be for ppl who have never used one, so it's great that there's something w a piano roll for them on the bbs!